Saturday, 30 November 2013

Yes, you’ll need to
use your headphones, but jamming out to Katy Perry for three minutes and 30
seconds will probably leave you feeling more energized than deleting marketing
emails for a similar quantity of time.

Want to read more?
You don’t need free hours to make it happen.DailyLit.comsends bite sized
chunks of classics to your inbox, but you can also just keep a regular book in
your desk drawer and read it, one page at a time. Books of poetry are good for
this. You’re in and out (unless it’sThe Wasteland).

Keep some note cards
and stationery around and write a note to someone whose birthday is coming up,
or a friend or colleague who did something intriguing. There’s no need to write
more than three or four sentences, and you can definitely do that in five
minutes. A random thank you note to someone who isn’t expecting one could
actually make someone’s day.

Do some push-ups or
sit-ups if you’re not self-conscious (or you’ve got a door). But even if the
whole office is staring at you, you can suck in your stomach or absentmindedly
do a bicep curl with a paper weight.

We’re pretty good
about setting work priorities, but personal ones tend to get short shrift. In
five minutes, you could decide that next week you’ll go to the library, watch a
favorite movie with your kids, and make your famous banana bread recipe on the
weekend. Don’t go overboard--you don’t want to stress yourself out--but
planning in a few fun anchor events gives you something to look forward to.

Not someone buried
in work at his desk, trying to ignore the world, but someone wandering around
the halls, grabbing coffee. Who knows, maybe you know this person by his email
address, but have never actually met him in person! Nurturing social ties is incredibly
productive--and key to human happiness.

If you’re like me,
they go back a ways, and can trigger all kinds of happy memories. Indeed, this
post took much longer than expected to write because I just scrolled back to
some August shots of my kids playing at the beach.

Bring crayons from
home, or take some from a restaurant’s kid meal stash, and create your own
coloring book. It’s a quick way to zone out and decompress, even if you don’t
put your masterpiece on the fridge. If you have a more elaborate array of
office supplies, you can try making a collage with pictures from magazines and
some rubber cement. If anyone asks, you can call it your vision board.

Fun fact: A recent
survey from the BlueJeans Network (a video conferencing service) found that 6%
of people admit to having fallen asleep while on a conference call. While
that’s not recommended, a tiny cat nap could be just the jolt you need to get
through the rest of the day.

Please add your favorite ways to use
bits of time for bits of joy in the comments.